The Sunflower House by Adriana Allegri

 

My thoughts

How to begin this review. This was a perfect first novel. A debut to be so proud of. One that will take your breathe away. Make you shed tears and even give you a bit of hope in places. It also made me feel fear. Sadness. Some happiness. And possibly hope. Hope that if enough people read this and other historical WW2 books they will not let it ever happen again.

This book starts out in 2006 with us meeting Katrine. She got a call in the middle of the night that her mother was in the hospital due to a fall. She goes and gets her then takes her home. From there she learns so much about her mother's life. Allina is Katrine's mother. She's 86 years old and a fiesty woman. She's kept some secrets from her daughter. Some very deep secrets.

You meet Allina when she was young and find out what happened in her young life. What was done to the people in the small town where she had always felt so safe. What the Germans did to innocent people. Just because they could. Because they were quick to take. What happened when she was left and a high ranking officers made her feel safe. What he did before he took her to Hochland Home. A place where women were mated. It was a place where children were made and then sold to German families. There was no love given in this place. The children were trained from birth to be docile. To not be fussy. To just exists until they were placed in a home with parents who may or may not love them. Germany wanted lots of babies. Hopefully lots of male babies.

Allina's story is a love story. A sad story in so many ways. But also happy. She found love. She did a lot of good. What her and Karl do is so important. What they go through is both sad and happy. You get to know each of them and how things happened the way it did. It made me weep in so many places. A part of history that should be told and never forgotten. 

This book is well researched. Read the Author's Note at the end. It's a must. This author did such a good job of making this story real. Making those feelings come out. I can't wait to see what she writes next.

Thank you #NetGalley, #StMartinsPress, for this ARC. This is my own true thoughts about this book.

A must read. 

Five big stars.

About

Family secrets come to light as a young woman fights to save herself, and others, in a Nazi-run baby factory—a real-life Handmaid's Tale—during World War II.

In a sleepy German village, Allina Strauss’s life seems idyllic: she works at her uncle’s bookshop, makes strudel with her aunt, and spends weekends with her friends and fiancé. But it's 1939, Adolf Hitler is Chancellor, and Allina’s family hides a terrifying secret—her birth mother was Jewish, making her a Mischling.

One fateful night after losing everyone she loves, Allina is forced into service as a nurse at a state-run baby factory called Hochland Home. There, she becomes both witness and participant to the horrors of Heinrich Himmler’s ruthless eugenics program.

The Sunflower House is a meticulously-researched debut historical novel that uncovers the notorious Lebensborn Program of Nazi Germany. Women of “pure” blood stayed in Lebensborn homes for the sole purpose of perpetuating the Aryan population, giving birth to thousands of babies who were adopted out to “good” Nazi families. Allina must keep her Jewish identity a secret in order to survive, but when she discovers the neglect occurring within the home, she’s determined not only to save herself, but also the children in her care.

A tale of one woman’s determination to resist and survive, The Sunflower House is also a love story. When Allina meets Karl, a high-ranking SS officer with secrets of his own, the two must decide how much they are willing to share with each other—and how much they can stand to risk as they join forces to save as many children as they can. The threads of this poignant and heartrending novel weave a tale of loss and love, friendship and betrayal, and the secrets we bury in order to save ourselves.